Aaliyah Album Update: Timbaland And Missy Elliott Have “No Plans To Participate”

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Although Timbaland and Missy Elliott reportedly signed on for the upcoming posthumous Aaliyah album, executive co-produced by Drake, it is not so. The latest twist in the saga finds more wrinkles in the plan.

“Although Missy and Timbaland always strive to keep the memory of their close friend alive, we have not been contacted about the project nor are there any plans at this time to participate,” said Elliott’s manager Mona Scott-Young through a press release. “We’ve seen the reports surfacing that they have been confirmed to participate but that is not the case.”

But that all changed when Jomo Hankerson, Aaliyah’s cousin and co-head of Blackground Recordings (the label behind the album), confirmed that Drake and Timbaland would be involved in the release.

“Timbaland will be involved with this project,” Hankerson told Billboard. “One of the records that we had that was never released was a Missy [Elliott] record that we obviously are going to be refreshing.”

Now it appears the dynamic duo that helped shape Aalyiah’s most acclaimed album, 1996’s One in a Million, will not be on board for their late friend’s return to the spotlight.

“Both Missy and Timbaland are very sensitive to the loss still being felt by the family so we wanted to clear up any misinformation being circulated,” Scott-Young added on the matter. —Keith Murphy, CBS Local